Los Angeles, CA (October 26, 2009) – On September 13, 2009, Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) CEO, Joan Irvine, graduated from the Chamber of Commerce Leadership Redondo Beach Program.

The Leadership Redondo Beach program is similar to the many other Chamber of Commerce Leadership programs around the world. It requires a two-year commitment. The first year focuses on educating participants about the community while meeting with numerous city and business community leaders. The second year requires working on a group project that will benefit the city and residents of Redondo Beach.

During the graduation ceremony at Wilderness Park, the graduates were honored with a congratulatory letter from Senator Diane Feinstein and Letters of Recognition from California Senator Jenny Oropeza and Assembly Member Ted Lieu. In honor of the graduation, on Oct 20, 2009 Irvine and her classmates were presented with a Letter of Recognition from Congresswoman Jane Harman and a Mayor’s Commendation from the City of Redondo Beach at its City Council meeting.

Since there is a water crisis in California and Redondo Beach has the additional problem of water run-off into the ocean, Leadership Redondo 2008 (LR08) chose to plant an educational Get Water Smart Garden in Wilderness Park (http://www.getwatersmart-rb.org) as their group project. This garden includes native and water tolerant plants. Many in the community helped to bring this vision to fruition including the Eagle Scouts who built seating from logs so people could rest while enjoying the Zen-like garden. In addition to the garden, LR08 held a fundraiser at the Sea Lab and provided education material to grade school children as well as information to businesses and residents.

Irvine stated, “I spend so much time working on national and international online child protection issues that I felt it was important to give back to my local community. Children spend too much time online, so it’s important to enhance such a great place like Wilderness Park where they can learn about nature and even camp in the woods. While we were working in the garden, it was great to see so many families taking advantage of this great community resource. It’s a good feeling to know that the Get Water Smart Garden will be around for decades to educate future generations of Redondo Beach children.”

Joan Irvine started with ASACP in 2002 as Executive Director and was promoted to CEO in 2008. She has worked in business technology and association management for over 25 years for companies including ADP, SDC and VIC. She advocates on behalf of online child protection in Washington and Sacramento, and participates in the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography, Family Online Safety Institute, and the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. She belongs to the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and is a graduate of the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce Leadership program. She has a BA in Human Development and Psychology from the University of Kansas.

Founded in 1996, the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating child pornography from the Internet. ASACP also works to help parents prevent children from viewing age-restricted material online with its Restricted To Adults – RTA Website Label. Companies and individuals interested in supporting ASACP may go to http://www.asacp.org for more information on how to get involved.